The Pittsburgh Pirates look like a mediocre offense with a very weak pitching staff, desperate for a big breakout from Starling Marte or Travis Snider, or a huge impact from Gerrit Cole midyear, none of which seems that likely from here.

Can't say I disagree. The team hasn't added anyone of substance, they're looking for improvement strictly from who was on the roster last year. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success.

improvement seems especially unlikely considering jones, pedro, walker, and mccutchen all had career years. for those guys, the amount of incremental improvement wont be enough.

Just have to hope that McCutchen, Walker and Jones maintain. Barmes has to be better right? Martin will be better than Barajas and whatever warm bodies they have at the corners will be more productive than what they had last year. I think the offense is adequate, I view the rotation as a disaster and the offense will look a lot better cause they're going to be trailing early in games all year and not be playing all those 2-1, 3-2 games.

I'll be optimistic for a change and say 84-78...I know things don't look good right now but last year and the year before we thought the same things (crap rotation, questionable relief outside of closer, questionable spots in lineup) going into opening day and they proved us wrong, even if never for a complete season. Honestly if you look at this roster compared to last year's on opening day, and the year before that, we're WORLDS ahead of where we were then. If Hurdle, Cutch, and Burnett can keep the team inspired, I don't see why we couldn't make noise again in the NL Central, and maybe the addition of Gerrit Cole and a full season of Starling Marte could get this team over the .500 hump.

Also, I like tomorrow's lineup a lot, but don't understand why Jones is 2nd and Walker 6th. IMO they should be swapped. But I'm a fan of starting off trying the Sanchez at 1st, Jones in RF thing, it gives us our best offensive lineup.

I want to be optimistic and go over .500 but just don't see it, I do think they'll get prett close again so I'll say 79 wins again.. I think this year they'll do it differently though, they'll be no June/July flirtation with a division lead and being in a payoff spot. The schedule is tough to start the year, again, and the rotation is iffy at best. I think they struggle up until June when some guys start to get healthy and Cole gets called up. From then on I think they start playing better and make a run at .500 but come up just short.

Also, I was thinking about the rotation to start the year and how uncomfortable it makes me. On the bright side this team started Erik Bedard on Opening Day last year and Karstens started the second game (not to mention they had an injured Morton throwing and Kevin Correia) so maybe Sanchez and Locke as the temporary 4 & 5 isn't as bad as I thought. Kevin Correia also started the opener two years ago, it could be worse.

On paper they're a 75 win team. It's not that insane to think they could get to 85 wins. It's also possible they win 68 games. They need El Blimpo to be more consistent, even if he stays the same statistically (it's hard to win with a key player who goes AWOL for weeks at a time). They need McDonald to learn that it's okay to throw strikes and not nibble. They need Hurdle to just not be Hurdle. They need Gomez to fall into a vortex and disappear.

beerman wrote:I want to be optimistic and go over .500 but just don't see it, I do think they'll get prett close again so I'll say 79 wins again.. I think this year they'll do it differently though, they'll be no June/July flirtation with a division lead and being in a payoff spot. The schedule is tough to start the year, again, and the rotation is iffy at best. I think they struggle up until June when some guys start to get healthy and Cole gets called up. From then on I think they start playing better and make a run at .500 but come up just short.

Also, I was thinking about the rotation to start the year and how uncomfortable it makes me. On the bright side this team started Erik Bedard on Opening Day last year and Karstens started the second game (not to mention they had an injured Morton throwing and Kevin Correia) so maybe Sanchez and Locke as the temporary 4 & 5 isn't as bad as I thought. Kevin Correia also started the opener two years ago, it could be worse.

I don't really agree with the assesment because I don't see Liriano or Morton providing any sort of "spark" when they rejoin the roster. I'm not sure how much i can emphasize how much of a role McDonald's and Burnett outlier first halves in getting the pirates in contention. I do think that the back end of the rotation is fine compared to last year because of who they're replacing. But the only way this team flirts with 500 again is if Burnett and McDonald anchor the rotation again. I guess I just have no faith at all in McDonald, and I think Burnett is just going to be a league average pitcher this year.

I tend to favor how NH handles the roster in the offseason, but I don't think he could have botched the SP moves more than he did this offseason. Not sure what he could have done, but i would take McCarthy everyday over Liriano who is damaged goods. Then to also keep other damaged goods like Morton and Karstens around.

on sports radio 93.7 the fan driven by #1 cochran hyundai last night, paul ziese was pointing out that the law of averages SHOULD be in the pirates favor when it comes to the pitching staff. you have to hope that between jmac, liriano, sanchez, karstens, mcpherson, locke, chaz, and cole, they can piece together a decent back of the roation.

kenny the kangaroo tends to agree with this assessment, but by the same token this is the pirates and what can go wrong, will go wrong, so its understandable to see fans are skeptical about this roation.

and when you think about it, its surprising that a guy like zeise would have that kind of "well, at least ONE of things things can work out" attitude, considering he covered pitt athletics for like a decade.

Seems to me that there is very little excitement in this town (compared to recent years) for baseball season. I am guessing that it is a combination of the weather, the Pens, the late season collapses, and the fact that they barely improved their major league roster (if at all) as to why it is this way. I don't know, it just feels different this year. Normally by opening day, I am drinking the Bucco kool-aid, but not this year.

Last season's historic collapse has all but erased my enthusiasm for the Pirates this season. Pretty much because I'm figuring, there's no way they are going to be anywhere close to the position they were in last July 4th.

It's hard for me to conceive any way that this team mimics last season's success. This is essentially the same team that stunk to close out the year, except an improvment at catcher. The bullpen is worse, and the rotation looks like a disaster and the season hasn't even started.

This is the first time going into a season where I've felt like NH did a really terrible job.